


Sitting In A Tree

by TheFoolsYouSee



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Hexside Academy of Magic and Demonics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-27
Updated: 2020-10-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 7,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26687251
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheFoolsYouSee/pseuds/TheFoolsYouSee
Summary: Boscha finally realises exactly which inner feelings have been driving her to pick on Willow. But making up for her past actions isn't going to be easy.
Relationships: Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Boscha/Willow Park
Comments: 45
Kudos: 369





	1. Chapter 1

Willow was woken by the buzzing of her scroll. She reached over and picked it up from her bedside table, squinting at the bright light of its display. She sighed and put it back down.

The morning sun was only just starting to stream through her curtains and it was still a while before her alarm was due to go off. But as she was already awake, she decided to make the most of it and got up to start her workout.

Her scroll kept buzzing all morning, through breakfast and through the walk to school. She had to keep it lodged between a couple of small bags of soil in her satchel to stop the noise from sounding out during her first Botanical Studies class. By the time she was sat in the cafeteria eating her lunch with her friends, she’d stopped even noticing the vibration.

‘Willow, is that yours?’ Amity asked after checking her own pocket.

‘Oh, yeah,’ Willow reached into her bag and pulled out the scroll, unfurling it onto the table. The buzzing stopped as the enchanted parchment opened the Penstagram app, even as new notifications kept flashing up. She left it on the table and continued eating.

‘Aren’t you gonna look at it?’ Luz asked.

Willow shook her head. ‘It’s just Boscha. She’s not stopped all morning.’

They all glanced over at one of the other tables; the magenta-haired triclops was smirking down at her own scroll, her thumbs tapping away at it as the group of girls she was sat with chatted to each other.

‘What’s she saying?’ Luz asked, turning back.

‘The usual, I’m ignoring it. Please, just leave it,’ Willow waved the human girl down as she started to stand. Luz seated herself again, but Amity got out her own scroll.

‘Well I’m at least gonna back you up on Penstagram,’ she said as she started tapping at it with her finger. 'Which pictures is she commenting on?'

‘It’s not on a picture.’

Amity looked up in surprise. ‘Wait, are they private messages?’

‘Yeah.’

Amity and Luz shared a glance which made Willow frown.

‘What?’ she asked.

‘Everything Boscha does is to get people to notice her,’ Amity explained. ‘So if she’s not commenting publically, then the person she’s trying to get to notice her… is _you_.’

Willow rolled her eyes. ‘Why would she want me to notice her?’

The couple sat before her shared another concerned look.

‘ _What?’_ Willow asked again, confused.

‘Yeah,’ Gus added through a mouthful of his sandwich. ‘What are we talking about?’

* * *

Boscha strutted down the school corridor. Her personal coven of girls were all in different classes right now, but she had enough star presence on her own that the other students still cleared out of her path. She’d been enjoying her new position at the front of the procession ever since Amity had gone soft and left the group, and was now used to spearheading her way through the crowd. She spotted Willow coming the other way and called out at her.

‘Hey, plant girl! How are your wedding plans with the tree behind the Grudgby field coming?’

Willow walked straight past, her eyes fixed ahead. Boscha scowled; she was used to the bespectacled witchling at least lowering her eyes timidly. She turned on the spot and started following her.

‘I think you should plan it for summer. That way you can save up all your crying for the winter when its leaves all fall off and it _dies_.’

Her target continued walking at a steady pace, not even glancing back. Boscha felt a surge of frustration and grabbed her shoulder.

‘Hey loser, look at me!’

Willow stopped and finally turned around. For some reason, the Plant track student was smirking _._

‘You seem really desperate to get my attention,’ she said, more confidently than Boscha liked. ‘You should have got the message when I didn’t reply to any of yours on Penstagram.’

‘Oh, please,’ the pink-haired girl retorted loudly. ‘You’re just an easy target for me to practice on.’

‘Really?’ Willow raised an infuriating eyebrow. ‘So it’s not because you’ve got a secret crush on me?’

Students had stopped in the corridor to watch the interaction, and the Grudgby Captain could feel their eyes burning all over her. She threw back her head with a performative laugh before responding.

‘Like I would ever-‘

She suddenly fell silent. Willow had leaned forward and given her a quick kiss on the lips.

The small crowd that had gathered around them was frozen, waiting for Boscha’s response. When none came, and her cheeks began to blush so much that they matched her hair, an excited “oooooh” started sounding out from the students.

‘There,’ Willow said firmly. ‘Now that we all know that you like me, maybe you’ll finally leave me alone.’

She continued on down the corridor as the “OOOOOH” from the students increased in pitch and volume. Boscha tried to think of something to shout after her, but her mind was blank. After a couple of splutters she gave up and stomped off in the other direction, her face aflame with humiliation.

* * *

That evening the three-eyed girl lay in her bed, still tense with embarrassment. How had she allowed that to happen? Why hadn’t she been able to think of anything to say? Her instinct was to keep up the stream of abuse she’d been sending to Willow. But each version of events she tried to type out that painted herself in a much better light just looked more and more desperate. She flung her scroll away with an exasperated snarl and rolled onto her back.

Growing up, meeting other kids her own age had mostly been in whatever competitive arena her mother had been pushing her into at the time; even school had been framed as a rivalry with her classmates. Anytime she had felt that she liked one of the other children, liked their hair, their horns, the nice way they wrote their runes, her mother had seemed to single them out to her as an enemy to be beaten and destroyed. Eventually she had started to turn her crushes into rivalries on her own.

That couldn’t be what was going on with Willow though. Although Boscha had begun to see how magically powerful the other girl could be, she was still a _loser_. She hung around with dweebs and humans and rejects. No matter how cute she looked, there was nothing that made her stand out. So why did that _frustrated_ feeling keep coming back whenever she was around?

The memory of their short kiss flashed across her mind. Willow’s lips had felt so warm.

Boscha pulled the pillow out from under her head, put it over her face and screamed.

* * *

She spent the next day trying to keep her head held high in school. Whenever whispering or giggling broke out nearby she would turn and glare the student down until they were cowering before her again. It gave her some satisfaction to know she’d retained most of her power. However she made sure to avoid going anywhere near the Plant homeroom, and at lunch told her friends they’d be eating outside today instead of in the cafeteria.

Boscha stood leaning back against the wall silently as the other girls sat on the front steps of the school, talking as they ate. After a few minutes of tapping her foot wordlessly, she suddenly spoke over them.

‘I hope I don’t have to tell you that I would never have a crush on someone as pathetic as Willow Park.’

The other girls stopped their chatter and shared a look between them that made Boscha feel uneasy.

‘Actually, we all really like Willow,’ Skara said. ‘After Amity left you were the only one who seemed to have a problem with her.’

The other girls nodded and started to chime in.

‘Yeah, that thorn thing she did in the Grudgby game was really impressive.’

‘And she always helps me in our Plant track classes.’

‘I met her dads at the market, they’re so cute!’

Skara stood and came up to the top step.

‘If you actually like her too, then that’s okay with us,’ she said with a sympathetic smile.

Boscha stared angrily down at the floor. It was bad enough that everyone at school was talking about it, but now her friends had the audacity to be _okay_ with it? She could feel their acceptance making something inside her begin to relax and she folded her arms tightly, holding on to the tension that made her strong.

“Thanks, I guess,’ she muttered.

* * *

The green sapling giggled as Willow tickled its bud. She smiled down at her youngest project and moved on to inspect the next.

Luz, Amity and Gus had joined her in the Plant homeroom after school had finished for the day to help her with her garden. They were each spraying various bits of greenery with bottles, and their cowls still glistened from when they’d all been playfully spraying each other a few minutes ago.

Willow turned around at the sound of the homeroom door opening. There was no reason she wasn’t allowed to ask for help with her work from other students, but she still felt a small pang of anxiety at the noise. She’d been working hard on this collection and didn’t want anything to get in the way of a well-deserved A.

But it wasn’t a teacher who had come in – it was Boscha. The girl had her hands stuffed into the pockets of her uniform’s tunic and was looking off to the side dismissively.

‘Willow, I have to talk to you,’ she said.

The stocky witchling paused before putting down her trowel.

‘Alright.’

Boscha looked over at the others, who had gathered protectively near their friend.

‘ _Alone,’ s_ he added, pointedly.

Luz, Gus and Amity all folded their arms in unison, not budging. Willow looked over at the set of three eyes that were still not meeting hers; they held hints of the embarrassed vulnerability that she had seen the previous day.

‘It’s okay, guys,’ Willow said to her friends. Luz touched her arm questioningly, and she nodded back.

The other three filed out of the room past Boscha; she and Amity exchanged an awkward glance, and Gus pointed a V with his fingers at his own eyes before pointing at her. The much taller witchling glared back at him, pointed three fingers at her own eyes and returned the gesture. Gus yelped and sped out, quickly shutting the door behind him.

The two girls stood in silence for a moment. Two of the saplings on the table started getting into a fight with each other, and Willow turned to separate the writhing stems.

‘What did you want to talk about?’ she asked, as she wrestled the plants apart. She heard slow footsteps start to come forward.

‘I’ve been thinking and… I guess there _might_ be another reason why I’ve been picking on you.’

It wasn’t an apology by any means, but Willow knew it was the least aggressive thing Boscha had ever said to her. She moved the pots of the two squabbling saplings away from each other and turned back.

‘And I guess what I did yesterday was a bit harsh,’ she admitted. ‘Maybe I shouldn’t have tried to embarrass you in front of everyone like that.’

Boscha nodded. There was another pause, and then she shrugged.

‘So, how about it then?’

‘How about what?’

‘Go out with me, or whatever.’

Willow stared at her bully disbelievingly. ‘No, Boscha.’

The three eyes staring at her widened in actual surprise.

‘Why not?’

‘What do you mean “why not”?’ Willow raised her voice angrily. ‘You’ve been making my life miserable!’

‘Yeah, but now you know that was just because I… you know… _like_ you.’ Boscha said the last two words so reluctantly that she was almost mouthing them.

‘That doesn’t matter, you were still hurting me!’

The anger returned to the triclops’ face and she huffed.

‘Look, it’s not every day that the Captain of the Grudgby team asks out a-’ she seemed to stop herself from continuing, clearly frustrated that the conversation wasn’t following the script in her head.

‘It’s not about status, Boscha,’ Willow said, shaking her head. ‘The answer’s no.’

The other girl clenched her fists.

‘Fine!’ she yelled. She strode over to the door and turned back as she opened it, apparently trying to think of a better line to leave on but not having any luck.

‘Fine!’ she shouted again and slammed it shut after her; the vibration made a few spores fall from one of the taller plants.

Willow shook her head again. She didn’t know if she’d ended up making things better or worse for herself.

* * *

Boscha stalked out of the school into the empty courtyard, a hot rush of blood running through her. She’d just ruined everything. Now the whole school would hear that she’d been rejected by the girl she’d been putting down, and her friends would give her _sad smiles_ and _sympathy_. There was no way she could keep her position as the unassailable top witch at Hexside after this. She’d undone all her achievements, all because she’d wanted to kiss Willow again.

She slammed a fist into a nearby tree trunk with a furious roar. The bark splintered, but it didn’t make her feel better. She heard hushed voices and turned to see Amity, the human and Willow’s other dweeby friend watching her from the other side of the courtyard. Angry, embarrassed tears started to form in her eyes and she quickly wiped them away. She sat down at the base of the tree, desperately trying to control her breathing.

Amity said something to the others, who nodded and hurried back inside the school, probably to check on Willow. The green-haired witchling came over and sat down next to Boscha.

‘What happened?’ she asked.

‘I asked her out.’

‘Oh, Boscha…’ Amity’s tone made sense at least; it _had_ been a stupid thing to do, although perhaps she had a different set of reasons for thinking so.

‘What did you think was going to happen?’ her old friend asked.

‘I don’t know.’

‘Why were you picking on her all this time if you really liked her?’

‘I _don’t know!_ ' The pink-haired girl gave a great sniff. Amity sat there, not making any moves to comfort her, which Boscha appreciated.

‘I remembered when you and Willow became friends again.’ She wiped the last tear from her top, central eye. ‘She’s fine with you now. I thought that would happen with me too.’

The other witchling leant her head back against the tree trunk. ‘It wasn’t that easy. I had to work hard to build that trust again. I still do.’

‘How did you do it?’

Amity seemed reluctant to respond. ‘I think Willow’s given you her answer,’ she said carefully. ‘The best thing you can do is to try to move on. And continuing to bully her is just going to make both of you feel worse.’

Boscha looked down at the ground. ‘This feels so bad,’ she said quietly.

‘I know,’ Amity nodded. ‘But you’ll be okay.’

Both girls sat for a moment in the awkward silence. Then Boscha stood, stuffing her hands back in her pockets.

‘Thank you,’ she said without looking back, before walking away.


	2. Chapter 2

The next couple of weeks were the quietest Willow could remember. She felt able to walk the corridors of Hexside without having to glance around corners, and stopped feeling that anxious spark in her chest whenever she got a notification on her scroll. She would sometimes glimpse her ex-tormentor across a corridor from a distance, but the only other interaction they’d had since the Plant homeroom was when they nearly walked into each other coming around a corner.

Willow had seen surprise in the other girl’s eyes, but none of the harshness she was used to. She wondered how different her own reaction looked.

‘Hi,’ she had said, awkwardly.

‘Hi,’ Boscha had responded, before continuing quickly on her way.

Willow used the peace and quiet to put more energy into her garden project; she’d managed to build a closed ecosystem of plants, each one producing the nutrients the others needed to grow. Soon she was able to stop refreshing their soil and only needed to water them regularly. She enjoyed the lightness of the load she now had to carry into school, and as she entered the homeroom she was considering bringing a book the next day for her free period.

However all thoughts of which volume she would choose disappeared as she immediately felt something wrong with the balance of her plants. She scanned the table and saw a gap – her potted _Dracaena Minimus_ was gone. She darted around the room, checking under and behind every bit of furniture, and even in the branches of the largest of her specimens to see if it had been snatched up by a curious vine. But there was no sign of it anywhere.

Willow quickly gathered the remaining scraps of her soil supplements and managed to just about top up the other plants with the sulphur they needed to last another day. She’d be able to get more of the supplement by then, but without the _Dracaena_ she had carefully nurtured to interact with the rest of the garden, the self-sustainability of her project was ruined.

Gus came into the homeroom as she was trying to shake the last crumbs of soil from the bag into one of the pots.

‘You okay, Willow?’ he asked. ‘I thought you were just going to pop in to check on them before we left.’

‘One of my plants is gone!’ she threw the empty soil bag on the ground in frustration. ‘My project’s due at the end of the week and there’s no way I can get a replacement cultivated in time.’

‘Okay,’ Gus went over, getting her to focus on him instead of her panic. ‘When did you last see it?’

‘It was here this morning.’

‘Let’s spread the word and get Principal Bump to make an announcement. Someone must have seen it.’

Willow took a breath. ‘Good idea,’ she nodded. They left the homeroom.

* * *

The announcement was made the following morning, but no-one came forward with any information. Luz, Amity and Gus helped to search the school from top to bottom, Amity even making a brave first trip to the detention pit, but they had no luck.

At the end of the last day before her deadline, Willow was rubbing her bleary eyes as she approached the homeroom a final time. She had stayed up the whole of the night before looking through books to try and find some shrub or orchid that could fulfil the same function at the last minute. Having found nothing, all she could do was make sure the remaining plants were in the best shape she could manage and hope that it was enough to at least pass.

She opened the door to see someone at her table – it was Mattholomule: the short, skinny boy who had taken over presidency of the Human Appreciation Society from Gus some time ago. He had just finished carefully placing the missing _Dracaena Minimus_ pot down where it had originally been sat, and threw his hands up into the air when he saw the door open.

‘I’m putting it back! I’m putting it back!’ he cried.

‘Why did you take it?’ Willow asked furiously as she approached him.

‘I heard humans use it to decorate their homes, I was trying to make a set for the Fantasy Club’s game next week!’ he quickly backed away as Willow examined the plant. Thankfully he hadn’t made any cuttings, so all she needed to do was spend an hour or so reintroducing it to her environment.

‘I’ve brought it back now, okay?’ Mattholomule snivelled. ‘Tell your crazy triclops girlfriend to back off!’

Willow turned to him, confused. ‘Who? Do you mean Boscha?’

The boy nodded. ‘She saw me getting it out of my locker. Now tell her not to poison me!’

He ran from the room, terrified. Willow frowned for a moment, before putting her thoughts about who she had to thank for saving her project to one side and starting her work on the _Dracaena._

* * *

She had gone straight to bed after getting home from school that night, exhausted, but was up in time to get to Hexside early to put some finishing aesthetic touches to her garden. Her presentation in that morning’s class went perfectly and she was rewarded with an A+. As soon as the lunch break began, she headed towards the Potions classrooms, and got there just in time to see her former bully coming out of her lesson.

‘Boscha!’ She called as she jogged up to her. The other girl turned around and again Willow was struck by the difference in her expression; there was almost some wariness in her face. The Plant track student pulled the Potions student back into the empty classroom and closed the door.

‘Mattholomule told me you got him to give my plant back.’

Boscha shifted uncomfortably. ‘Yeah,’ she admitted.

‘I would have failed my project if he hadn’t.’

There was a pause, and then a huff. ‘Are you gonna say “thank you” then?

Willow considered; she knew this was an opportunity that might not come again.

‘Yes… but I need you to say something first.’

‘What?’

‘I think you know what.’

Boscha slumped down on one of the desks sulkily. ‘I’ve stopped, haven’t I? And I’m doing stuff to help you and I’m not even taking credit for it.’

‘Yes. But I still need you to say it.’

The other witchling scoffed and folded her arms. ‘You’re enjoying this, aren’t you?’

‘No,’ Willow lied.

Boscha lowered her eyes, and was silent for a moment. ‘…I’m sorry. For handling my feelings badly and being a jerk about it. And a bully.’

Willow nodded. ‘Thank you. And thank you for getting my plant back, I really appreciate it.’

Boscha kept her eyes down for few more seconds before glaring up again. ‘So can I go have my lunch now?’

Willow smiled and nodded again. The other girl stood and went to leave, but hesitated in the doorway.

‘I hope we can be friends now,’ Boscha said, before walking out.

* * *

Willow’s next encounters with the Grudgby team Captain were still a little awkward, but now they were able to have brief chats when they ran into each other in the corridor between classes, or in the courtyard as they came into school. Willow would ask about Grudgby, and Boscha would mention plants that she’d seen.

One afternoon Willow was having another longer session in the Plant homeroom that had lasted after the other students had left. She was bringing a bag of cuttings to the compost heap outside, and saw the Hexside Grudgby team practising in the field.

A much younger student was stood by the entrance in the fence, peeking in to watch them play. Willow saw Boscha pause in her jog back from the pitch and notice the child. The triclops beckoned to them and they shyly went over. Boscha showed them the Grudgby ball and got them to pass it back and forth with her a few times.

The child suddenly threw it forcefully, hitting the top, central eye that had been their target. Boscha was knocked back, falling on her rear.

The next sound Willow heard shocked her; it was a laugh. A genuine, unmocking sound that she’d never heard come out of that mouth before. The Grudgby Captain got back up and gave the child an encouraging ruffle on the head.

Willow realised she was smiling. She took a quick breath to shake herself out of her trance, finished emptying the bag of cuttings and went back inside.

When she eventually left the school a short while later, she saw a magenta-haired figure limping away from the Grudgby field. She ran over to her.

‘Hey Boscha, are you okay?’

The other witchling started at her voice. ‘Oh. Hi, Willow. I’m fine.’

‘No you’re not, you look like you’ve pulled something.’

‘I just had a bad fall getting the smidge in practice, I’ll walk it off.’

‘The last thing you need to do is walk. Come on, I’ve got something that’ll help.’

Boscha hesitated and looked around. They were alone outside the school; it seemed that she’d waited for the rest of her teammates to leave before trying to make her way home.

‘Okay, fine,’ she agreed. Willow reached an arm around the injured girl’s back, supporting the side she was limping on, and they made their way back into the school.

* * *

Back in the plant homeroom Willow knelt next to the leg stretched out on a stool, wrapping a long leaf around its swollen ankle.

‘That’s _Acacia Anaesthesia_ , isn’t it?’ Boscha asked as she eyed the leaf. ‘We use it in our Potions classes to make sleeping draughts.’

Willow nodded, ‘It’s pretty strong when it’s ingested, but just wrapping the leaf on an injury is a good painkiller.’

She glanced up and saw the three eyes looking down at her quickly look away, the cheeks below them starting to blush.

Willow smiled and looked back down at her work. ‘You’re going pretty red there.’

The other girl huffed. ‘Yeah, well you know why, don’t you?’

The bespectacled girl continued wrapping the leg thoughtfully.

‘One.’

‘One what?’ Boscha asked.

‘One date. As a test.’ Willow felt the muscles in the leg she was holding tighten.

‘R-really?’

Willow nodded and looked back up. ‘But you’ve got to promise me one thing.’

The injured girl gulped and nodded.

‘You don’t walk home on this. You call your mom and get her to pick you up.’

Boscha balked a little, but eventually nodded again.

‘Good. Then it’s a date,’ Willow looked down again to adjust the now fully-wrapped leaf, trying to find an excuse to hide her own blushing cheeks.

* * *

‘You will do _no such thing,_ young lady,’ Luz commanded, her arms folded and a parental glare in her eyes.

They were gathered in the living room of the Owl House. What had started off as a movie night huddled around Luz’s human scroll-like device had turned into pandemonium when Willow had dropped the news. Gus had immediately started checking her for signs of enchantments or hypnosis, and Luz had begun babbling in her other human language that none of the others had ever managed to get a grasp on. Only Amity had remained sat on the couch, apparently deep in thought.

‘It’s fine, I promise.’ Willow continued. ‘I’ve thought about it and - Gus, there’s nothing under my hair!’

‘But the scalp is the perfect place to hide a control sigil!’ Gus scrabbled at the air as the older witchling held him at arm’s length.

‘It’s not fine, Willow!’ Luz insisted. ‘Boscha’s been a jerk to you for a long time, and suddenly she turns nice out of nowhere? I don’t trust it.’

‘It’s not out of nowhere,’ Willow assured her. ‘I’ve always known she gets a lot of pressure at home to act that way. It’s sucked for me, definitely, but I could never really _hate_ her for it. And ever since she first asked me out she’s made an effort to change.’

‘Okay,’ Luz conceded, ‘but let’s see her keep it up for longer than a couple of weeks before we all start _dating_ her!’

‘It’s one date, and if I don’t like what I see, I’ll shut it down,’ Willow promised.

‘No,’ Luz shook her head and looked over at the couch. ‘Amity, you know what Boscha’s like, back me up.’

Amity raised her head, brought out of her reverie. ‘I… think it’s a good idea.’

Luz gave her girlfriend a surprised stare before turning to Gus.

‘Check her too,’ she instructed.

Gus went to approach the green-haired girl on the couch, but one sharp look from her made him immediately back away again.

‘She’s not just doing it to try and make Willow like her,’ Amity continued. ‘She’s doing nice things on her own. I’ve seen it too.’ She stood and took Luz’s hand, and her voice became softer. ‘You remember what I was like. Why can’t Boscha have changed too?’

Luz gave a reluctant groan. ‘I still don’t trust her.’

‘You don’t have to Luz,’ Willow said. ‘Just trust _me_.’

Luz looked between her two friends’ faces. After another long sigh she let go of Amity’s hand and went over to Willow, putting both hands on her shoulders.

‘Alright, I’ll allow it. But let me give you my advice as someone who knows a lot about the whole enemies-to-dating thing. Changing them for the better is not your responsibility. And you shouldn’t have to reward them for meeting basic requirements for being a decent person. Now, anything happens you don’t like, you call it off or you message Gus or Amity and we’ll be right there. Deal?’

Willow nodded. ‘Deal.’

‘You _promise_?’

‘I promise.’

Luz exhaled. ‘Okay then,’ she went and sunk back down on the couch. ‘Dios _mío_ …’


	3. Chapter 3

Boscha waited under the street torches outside Willow’s house, tapping her boot on the cobblestones nervously. She tugged her short black jacket further over her golden-yellow shirt; the small evening chill in the air made her glad she had opted for her black slacks instead of a skirt. Her hair was swept back a bit, but otherwise she’d let it hang down over her shoulders tonight. Willow had definitely said to wait outside, and she wasn’t late yet, but Boscha had arrived early and was regretting allowing herself the time to let her nerves build up.

The door opened and Willow stepped out of the house in a turquoise dress that matched her hair. She quietly closed the door behind her before coming over to Boscha.

‘Hi,’ she said shyly.

‘Hi,’ Boscha returned. ‘You, uh… you look nice.’

‘Thanks, so do you,’ Willow smiled. She glanced back at the house. ‘We’d better go. I told my Dads I’m going with Luz and Gus tonight.’

Boscha raised two of her eyebrows. ‘So I’m a secret?’

‘For now,’ the other girl winked. ‘We’ll see how tonight goes.’

They made their way down toward the carnival. It had already visited Bonesborough once this year, but some trouble they’d had in the next town over – something about a dancing Slitherbeast that had escaped and run riot – had meant they’d had to reverse their normal tour of the isles and wind their way back again. It had been advertised as a special one-off return, and Boscha had leapt at the chance for something unique for their date.

The lights of the stalls and rides shone out against the more dimly lit residential streets as the two girls approached. Boscha recognised a few other teenagers from Hexside coming in at the same time as them. They glanced over at the two of them and then away, barely registering their existence, and Boscha relaxed a little.

‘Last time I was here things got cut short,’ Willow giggled. Boscha laughed along politely, not following the joke.

‘I missed it when it was here before.’

‘Oh that’s right, your pixies.’

‘Only one of them was mine. But Sandrabelle was pretty good at… recruiting.’

Boscha cringed a little at the memory of having to clear the swarm out of the school. But Willow was laughing, which made her at least a little glad it had happened.

The stalls they passed had the usual carnie games and rotten candy for sale. One had a set of targets behind the counter and the witch manning it was hamming up her sales pitch.

‘Try your luck, try your wits, beat the game built not to be beat! – Oh, hi Willow!’

‘Hi Eda!’ The bespectacled witchling went over to the stall and Boscha followed. She now recognised the stall-owner as the Owl Lady who was training the human, and occasionally sold weird items in the market.

‘I’m surprised they let you back in here after last time,’ Willow was saying to her.

‘Well, "let" is a strong word,’ Eda replied. ‘I’m not what you’d call officially licensed.’ The woman’s mismatched eyes ran Boscha up and down. ‘So _you're_ the bad decision I’ve been hearing about.’

The ‘bad decision’ glowered a little and stuffed her hands in her jacket pockets, but Eda gave Willow a wink.

‘Nice catch, kid,' she said. 'And speaking of catches, how would you two like to try my little game?’

Boscha glanced up at the stall’s sign. It read “SCAM BALL-TOSS GAME”.

‘What’s the scam?’ she asked.

‘Give it a go and you might find out,’ Eda grinned. ‘Three snails a pop.’

Boscha looked over the targets. They seemed pretty standard, and would probably start moving once the game began. She pulled out a few bills and slid them over the counter to Eda, who snatched them up.

‘Are you sure?’ Willow asked. ‘It literally says it’s a scam.’

‘Yeah,’ Boscha circled a finger at her eyes with a smile. ‘But try beating _this_ depth perception.’

Eda dropped a bucket full of small balls on the counter, pulled a crank and the targets started moving. Boscha grabbed a ball from the bucket and expertly tossed it towards one of the targets, knocking it back. The next one she threw also hit its mark, and the next, until all the targets had been knocked down.

Boscha frowned and turned to Eda.

‘So?’

‘Oh, you didn’t spot the scam?’ Eda shrugged. ‘Guess you’re not as sharp-eyed as you look.’

Boscha scowled. She pulled out another three bills and slammed them declaratively on the counter.

She did just as well on her second round as she had on the first, but still couldn’t spot anything out of the ordinary. She missed a target on purpose, and the ball landed blandly on the floor. When the mechanisms had stopped again Boscha glanced back to Eda, who looked unbearably smug.

‘I’ll try,’ Willow said, dropping some bills of her own on the counter.

Unlike Boscha, she didn’t have as much luck hitting anything, and most of the balls she threw flew between the targets to hit the back sheet of the stall’s tent. Willow smiled sheepishly at her date.

‘Try aiming for where they’re going to be, not where they are,’ Boscha advised as another ball missed.

‘Why don’t you show me?’ Willow took Boscha’s hand and put it on the back of her own. Boscha’s heart started to beat a little faster, but she stepped closer and started guiding the witchling’s arm.

‘Don’t think about the ball, just look at the target. Let your instinct do the rest.’ She rested her chin on the shoulder in front of her to line up their sights. She found it hard to focus; the sound of Willow’s breathing was very close, and the scent of her hair was overpowering all the others from the carnival. Boscha forced herself to look ahead, did a couple of practise movements with the hand she was gripping, drew it back and sharply threw forward. Their fingers released at the same time, and the ball hit the target dead on.

Willow cheered happily and gave Boscha a smile that made her insides spark.

‘Show me again?’ she asked.

After Willow’s round was over they both had one more go each, Boscha giving Willow as many ‘coaching’ throws as she asked for. The triclops also tried keeping one eye on Eda throughout her last round, but they both still failed to notice anything out of the ordinary with the game no matter how many targets they did or didn’t hit.

‘Alright Eda,’ Willow sighed, ‘we give up. What’s the scam?’

Eda glanced around theatrically and beckoned them closer. Both girls leaned forward.

‘The scam is…’ Eda whispered to them conspiratorially. ‘…that you just paid fifteen snails to try and work out what the scam is.’ She gave a loud cackle and slapped her knee. ‘Who needs prizes when you can goad people into trying to outsmart you?’

Boscha narrowed all three of her eyes, but knew she’d been beaten. ‘Guess you got us,’ she admitted, swallowing her bruised pride.

Eda wiped a mirthful tear from her eye. ‘Enjoy your night, kids. You see anyone who looks too sure of themselves, send them my way.’

As they walked away from the stall Boscha noticed one of the balls had rolled backwards from the stall into their path.

‘I’ll get it,’ Willow bent down and picked it up. Without looking, she tossed it back over her shoulder.

Boscha followed the ball with her eyes and saw it bounce squarely off one of the now-still targets and land neatly in the bucket of other balls.

Boscha looked back at Willow in amazement.

‘You… you _scammed_ me.’

The other girl gave a mock-innocent look and laughed.

They spent the next couple of hours sampling as many of the different attractions as they could. Willow took a picture of a fawning Boscha next to the cage of a baby Slitherbeast; the sign next to it read ‘THIRD TIME’S THE CHARM!’ although the keeper had said this was only the second one they’d exhibited, with an air of inevitability in his voice. But he’d been nice enough to take a picture of the two girls together, and Boscha’s thumb had briefly hovered over the message that had flagged up asking if she wanted to make it her scroll’s background picture. Next, Willow had dragged her toward the rides; in an advertising gimmick the Molar Coaster and the Roller Ghoster had been combined into a haphazard blending of themes that didn’t really work together.

‘Do ghosts have teeth, or do teeth have ghosts?’ Boscha was asking as they came out the exit. ‘What are they trying to tell us?’

Willow giggled as she clutched onto the other girl’s arm, swaying a little.

‘Ooh...’ She looked around woozily. ‘Um, would you mind if we found somewhere away from all the… smells?’

Boscha could see that Willow’s face was a little greener than before they got on the ride and nodded.

It wasn’t long before the noise of the carnival had drifted behind them as they walked through the quiet of the night streets. They entered a small park and sat down on a bench; the park sat on the top of one of the rolling hills of Bonesborough, and they were able to look out at the town below them. The effect of gothic architecture mixed with the repurposed giant skeletal systems that gave the town its name was eerily beautiful. Boscha glanced at Willow and saw that the cool air had put the colour back in her cheeks.

‘So…’ she patted her hands together nervously, ‘how am I doing?’

The other witchling looked over and smiled. ‘Good.’

The light in the park was dim, but Willow seemed to be fully illuminated, and the softness of her face was almost tangible to Boscha’s eyes. She could feel a new kind of tension in her stomach, and looked down.

‘What is it?’ Willow asked, concerned.

The pink-haired girl didn’t reply. She desperately tried to find cool words, confident words, words which would hide the shake in her breath and the fear behind her eyes. The old voice in her head came back asking why she should be saying anything? If you want something, take it! Boscha shook it away; this was not the time for brash action. But the seconds were passing and she hadn’t said anything, and she knew what she wanted to say but there had to be something else, something less exposing and revealing and-

‘Boscha?’

Willow’s hand was on hers. Three eyes looked into two.

‘I want to kiss you,’ Boscha said quietly, and Willow blushed.

There was a pause, filled with dozens of thoughts.

‘Okay.’

The other girl’s face was so close now. All Boscha had to do was lean her head forward to close the gap…

She wasn’t doing it.

_Why wasn’t she doing it?_

This was _game day,_ why was she freezing now?!

Boscha could see the face before her trying to read her expression. Then she saw it leaning towards hers…

Even with the cool air having been on her face, Willow’s kiss was just as warm as Boscha remembered.

* * *

When word started to get round the school that they were now dating, Boscha was almost a little disappointed by how calmly people reacted to the news. But walking the school corridors beside Willow instead of following her from behind throwing taunts made her see just how popular her new girlfriend really was; almost every student would exchange a smile or a few friendly words with the Plant track girl as they passed. It was a brand new form of admiration that Boscha was unfamiliar with, and she realised that in terms of social status they were actually quite evenly matched. After the public outing of her feelings (and particularly as she had stopped her bullying), most accepted that she and Willow were a couple without much question.

But there were three students that Boscha still had to win over.

Luz, Amity and Gus were sat on the opposite side of the lunch table to her. Their expressions and the way they were lined up next to each other reminded Boscha of the judges she’d had to give her solo recitals in front of as a child.

‘And?’ Gus prompted.

Boscha sighed, ‘And for following you around all day drawing on your faces.’

‘And?’ Amity continued.

‘And for tackling you and making you hurt your leg.’

‘ _And_?’ Luz added.

‘And for trying to kill you by making you race round Dead Man’s Curve.’

Luz nodded, then frowned. ‘Wait, what was that last one?’

‘Guys!’ Willow interjected. ‘We’ll be here all day if you make Boscha apologise for _everything._ ’

‘Yeah,’ Gus said pointedly. ‘We would.’

Boscha drummed her fingers on the table anxiously. ‘I know I’ve got a lot to make up for. And I want to start by doing what we all want to do; making Willow happy.’

Willow gave her hand a squeeze. Luz’s expression softened a little, but she still pointed her sandwich at Boscha threateningly.

‘You’d better. My girl gets hurt, so do you.’

Boscha gave a questioning frown to Amity at the human’s words, who smiled and shrugged.

But Gus had a serious look on his face. ‘There’s still one thing I need to know,’ he said, and dug his hand into his satchel; Boscha started to feel on edge again, until he pulled out a piece of paper and held it up in front of her face, pointing to the two images he had drawn on it. ‘If you wore glasses, would you wear them like _this_ , or like _this_?’

Boscha blinked in surprise, then grimaced. ‘Eww, I don’t know. I hope I _never_ have to wear dorky-'

She bit her tongue, but too late. A tension grew around the table; Gus lowered the paper, Luz’s eyes started to narrow and Amity looked down at her flask, lifting it to her mouth as if to try and hide her face inside it.

Willow, however, was calmly continuing to clean her glasses on her sleeve. ‘That’s okay,’ she said. ‘I hope if the Grudgby coach ever tells me I’m the new team Captain I don’t get so excited that I wet myself.’

Amity spat out the mouthful of her drink, her spluttering coughs interjected with shocked laughter. Luz tried to help her girlfriend recover, but her wide eyes were fixed on her quiet friend across the table.

‘ _Willow!_ ’ she scolded in amazement.

Boscha was also staring at Willow, her mouth agape. No-one had ever been brave enough to acknowledge that incident in front of her before.

‘All the time I was teasing you,’ she said with horrific realisation, ‘and you were _holding back_.’

Willow nodded. ‘I was trying to be merciful.’

* * *

Their new dynamic kept Boscha on much less secure footing than she was used to. Once they’d become comfortable enough around each other she tried to introduce some light, flirty banter. But Willow’s comebacks would be absolutely devastating; one time Boscha had pointed to a rock formation that had vaguely looked like her girlfriend. Willow had said that if she was attracted to something so hard and cold she should think about the effect her mother had had on her.

One afternoon the two of them were relaxing in Boscha’s room. She had taken down most of the trophies that used to line the walls, and Willow had brought over a couple of plants that made for much more welcoming decoration. Boscha was letting one of the succulents wrap a shy tendril around her finger.

‘I’m starting to see why you like looking after them so much,’ she said. ‘Even if it’s a bit needy, you can’t help feeling sorry for it.’

‘Yeah,’ Willow said, lying back on Boscha’s bed and tossing a Grudgby ball up in the air. ‘It’s the same kick I get out of dating you.’

Boscha shook her head in disbelief. She went and lay next to her girlfriend on the bed, and they snuggled in close. ‘This is your revenge, isn’t it?’

Willow gave a guilty smile. ‘Maybe a bit. I’m sorry, I’ll stop making fun of you if you want me to.’

The triclops turned her head toward the wall.

‘Y-You don’t have to stop...’ she murmured.

There wasn’t a reply. She glanced back at the other girl who was giving her a confused look before she seemed to notice Boscha’s blush and her eyes widened in realisation.

‘Do you… _like_ it?’ Willow asked.

Boscha’s whole face was now bright red. It was still hard for her to work out what she was really feeling sometimes, but she was starting to recognise that the idea of her old victim now holding some power over her was a little… _exciting._

The former terror of the Hexside hallways swallowed nervously as her girlfriend leaned her face close.

‘Well, isn’t that interesting…’ Willow whispered through a mischevious smile.


End file.
